“Asteroid City” is a visual feat of a movie with little in the way of substance, in fact, this might be the most contrived Wes Anderson film I've watched. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Liev Schreiber and Adrien Brody star in it, which adds heft but the photography is helliciously rendered in saturated pastels and so it's weird.

This film brought a sense of emptiness in me. During its two hours’ running time

A star is born in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Austin Butler’s performance as the rock'n'roll legend is simply jaw-dropping. In an astonishing turn, the actor melts completely into Elvis, announcing the arrival of one hell of a committed actor. Unfortunately, Butler’s performance (and a couple of scenes towards the film’s end) are the only worthy piece of this near travesty of a motion picture.

The massively over-directed

The Cold War, which provides the historical context for Steven Spielberg's new film BRIDGE OF SPIES, is one of modern history's more stupid phases (BRIDGE OF SPIES is based on real historical events), a Thanksgiving Day parade of hypocrites high on reefer-madness paranoia about the other guy. That era gave us doctrines, an arms race, the constant threat of mutually-assured destruction and a movie franchise

Best hairdo: Bobby Canavale's nape in "Blue Jasmine." Best scene: Greta Gerwig running in "Frances Ha" to David Bowie's "Modern Love." Best newcomer: Barkhad Abdi in "Captain Phillips." Best acting award: New York City in "Inside Llewyn Davis." Best documentary: "The Act of killing." So much to gloat about this year. Here are my favorites among those films which had an official U.S. release.

When early in the forties a young Greek director called Elias Kazantzoglou showed up at a major Hollywood studio, the studio head (one imagines him sending cigar smoke the way of the hopeful visitor), advised him on a name change as a first step. “How about Cézanne?” the studio head asked. The director who would go down in film history as Elia Kazan demurred. “There already is a Cézanne,” he said. The studio head

“Cloud Atlas,” the latest effort from the Wachowskis, wraps a half-dozen stories, settings, and groups of characters into one film. But it doesn’t matter how many stories they do, their song remains the same. The “Matrix” helmers have hit the same point for a while now. Liberty is the freedom from illusions that are perpetrated by relationships of power. Bravery is the willingness to fight these illusions, and fighting these illusions takes the coll-

Aaron Sorkin has written the screenplay and Mike Nichols has […]